I think the target MMO's should be going for are what the genre was originally created for, that being creating the best simulated world setting you possibly can. For the past 5 or so years MMO's have been trying to make dumbed down, over instanced, linear easy mode games thinking they can attract this mythological subscriber base that likely doesn't exist. Instead what they end up creating at best is a game that people will find "cool and fun" for about 6 weeks time before they grow bored and move on to the next "cool and fun" game.